


A Shifter's Way to Life and Death

by Evangleline



Series: Witch Way to Life and Death [2]
Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV), The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Polyamory, Rebirth, Reincarnation, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:48:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26666941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evangleline/pseuds/Evangleline
Summary: He died when a plane crashed into the side of his car. His sister in the passenger seat and their childhood friend in the car next to them. They died far to early and were each given another chance and gifts when separated. Each reborn into the same world but a different universe. Him? Fear the Walking Dead.Way to Life Series- Dean's UniverseOC Pairings: Alicia Clark, Ofelia Salazar, & Amy 'Harrison' (tWD)
Relationships: Alicia Clark/Original Character(s), Alicia Clark/Original Male Character(s), Amy (Walking Dead)/Original Character(s), Amy (Walking Dead)/Original Male Character(s), Amy Harrison/Original Character(s), Amy Harrison/Original Male Character(s), Ofelia Salazar/Original Character(s), Ofelia Salazar/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Witch Way to Life and Death [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1940296
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	1. Intro

Being back state-side after spending the last few years overseas was strange. He glanced over to his little sister in the passenger seat of his mustang. Cordelia was a bubbly 5'7 blonde of goof. As much as she liked to say he was an idiot he was the one that usually bothered to think things out. It was strange how their shared love of all things green or furry had lead to them both working with animals albeit in extremely different way. Where she worked as a vet in the state zoo he worked as a wildlife photographer. He traveled the world photographing dangerous and endangered animals in their natural habitats like Amur leopards (less than 100), Gharial crocodiles (less than 300), and Sumatran tigers of which there was less than 400 existing in the wild.

Try as Cordelia might, he had no plans to stay state-side. He knew she wanted him to stick around and maybe even look into finding someone to settle into family life with as he was quickly approaching his 30's but he just couldn't. He didn't know what it was but he just didn't have the urge to settle. Cordelia might not remember it but he did.

He remembered how their sperm-donor had been with their mother. He remembered the drinking and beatings only for the man not to remember the next day or come home with lavish gifts in an attempt to make up for it. Even to this day his mother flinched away at the slightest touch of a man, even him. As he had grown he grew to look more and more like his father and it led to her avoiding being in the same room unless she absolutely had to be despite the fact that even as a child he had done his best to defend her. He remembered the man raining beating after beating on him because he had yelled or thrown whatever he could to get him away from her. Still his appearance did nothing to calm her and it had led to him giving up on them ever managing any sort of familial relationship. They had ended up being strangers living in the same house up until he had left. He supposed he feared what it meant that even his own mother flinched away from him despite knowing that he himself had not actually done anything to cause it.

* * *

"So Marleen said she called you about getting some photos taken for the zoo's website. Why did you lie?" His sighed and tightened his hands around the steering wheel.

"Cor, let's not do this right now. Vi just finished her residency and it's pizza night. Let's have a nice night and then you can bug me all you want about this tomorrow."

"I just don't get it. I know you love the travel but don't you want to have a place to come back to? I mean no offense but you're not getting any younger. Dean you're 33 and I can't remember you being in a relationship that lasted more than a couple months."

"Karina Ivanovich, 5 months." He threw out the name of the woman he had been seeing two years ago.

"The Russian chick you saw maybe once or twice a month? That does not count as 5 months."

"Does when you agree you're exclusive."

"Dean, come on. Would it really be that bad to just stick around for . . . 6 months? Just try it, please." She was looking at him with that damn look. She knew he always gave in when her or Vi looked at him like that. It was as if he had never built any sort immunity to that damn puppy dog look even after having it used on him for over 20 years.

"I'll think about it." She squeals. "Gah! Don't do that." He says rubbing at ear.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just so happy."

Being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic with his little sister had to be some bad juju from a past life. He sighs as he listens to the bubbly blonde talk on the phone.

"So ready for pizza, pizza, pizza little sisters?" He asked playfully trying to get the two to shut up for just a moment. He would have sworn they could babble at a pitch that could only be heard by dogs at mach speed.

"Vi?" Cordy voice asked, but it was off. His eyes moved to look out his window, traffic at a stand still and then he saw it.

**"Holy SHI---"**

* * *

**Dean Thomas Royce your sister has chosen for you three to be brought to a new universe. However you will not be in the same world and that will not change. Regardless, I offer you each two gifts. I offer you two favors.**

It was clear he was thinking carefully not wanting to rush. "Would it count as a favor if I asked to know what universe was picked? What they asked for?" **_Smart boy._**

 **No. I shall allow this knowledge.** The primordial pondered whether or not he would catch his hint or not. **The Walking Dead is the place of your rebirth.** I heard his internal panic before he calmed himself and began to think rationally.

"I want us to remember everything about our lives the soonest it is safe for us to but have the emotional part of it dulled so we're not distracted by the past." **_Good, the boy caught it. He may just survive his sister's blunder._** "Second for us to have the means to survive the walking dead as adults including the knowledge of how to access these powers once we come into them." _**How cunning! The boy, managed to say it in such a way that not only would they not still be new to their rebirth but have time to prepare for what they would know was coming.**_

 **Very well then it shall be done.** I informed him before opening the portal _._

* * *

**THUNK!**

"Shit." He mumbled as he pushed himself up from the floor and turned his head to find he had fallen off a bed covered in Spiderman sheets. He lifted his hand to put it down on the bed and help him stand. "What the?" He stared at the hand so much smaller and then he remembered. He looked around the room his eyes catching sight of himself or rather a little boy who could only be him in one of the closet's mirrored sliding doors. He couldn't be more than 9 or 10. 

Dean couldn't begin to comprehend the way his new body differed from his last. There were just too many differences. He felt like a stranger in his own skin. Everything was bright or loud and the smells were overwhelming. It was as though the world had been a blurry 20's black and white silent film brought into HD color and given surround sound for the first time. Everything was just too much at once and so his body shut down. It took days to recover from the sensory overload, they just thought he had the flu.

* * *

 **A/N:** **I'm going to change the FtWD timeline by pushing things back to October 2003 (when the comic takes place** **).** **Before someone starts crap about it not being much of a difference let me make a few points.**

**Point 1: Halle Berry (first and only black woman so far) and Denzel Washington (2nd black man to do so out of 4 TODAY) won Oscars for Leading Roles in 2002 (though their movie roles were questionable as a prostitute and corrupt cop).**

**Point 2: It wasn't until 2005 after Hurricane Katrina that the government itself received heavy backlash when FEMA did not take quick action in providing support to those who didn't have the means to leave mostly impoverished African Americans and Hispanics.**

**Point 3: It wasn't until 2008 that we had Obama in office and 2009 that we had the FIRST Hispanic (and 3rd woman) Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor.**

**Point 5: In 2015 Rapid City, SD a drunk hockey fan poured beer on Native students and told them to 'go back to the reservation' (other people quickly started to do so as well), 4 days later the local newspaper questioned if they stood up during the National Anthem (they did but I wouldn't have blamed them if they did otherwise especially when charges were brought up and the man who did so was acquitted).**

**I still remember when I was about five and a woman asked me if I needed help because 'that man' was watching me at the playground when I went around the big play structure thing with the slides and the loops (jungle gym? idk). The look on her face when I explained my mommy was white (I didn't know better and she was fair-skinned so I said white) and my daddy was black (He's in line with Keke Palmer's coloring) meant I was yellow. I'm also pretty sure that was the day I got the stranger danger talk but I've digressed.**

**This time change will cause some major differences that I'll have to adjust for. One such thing would be Victor Strand has not lost his investments in Katrina (because it has yet to happen) and therefore has not resorted to theft so I think I'll make it that he met Tomas Abigail a different way it shouldn't be difficult since they both business in real-estate. Another would be that 9/11 at that point would still be fresh in their minds happening only two years beforehand which will cause even more disruption among them.**

* * *

**Character Bio:**

Original Name: Dean Thomas Royce

Cause of Death: Plane crashing into car at 33

Face Claim: Jason Momoaas adult

New Birth Name: Dean Kele Grey-Atohi

Kele= Sparrow

Atohi= Woods

D.O.B: May 7, 1981 (Age at Canon: 22)

Physical Description: Dark brown wavy hair kept at least shoulder-length since leaving Navy, Cobalt-blue eyes with a gold ring around the pupil, Height of 6'4

Abilities

-Animal Shifter: can transform himself into any animal within 50x his own weight

-Magic Infused Body: inheritable immunity to undead, runes/wards created from blood, accelerated mental and physical development, flawless coordination, heightened senses, increased stamina

Pairing: Alicia Clark & Ofelia Salazar & Amy

Occupation: Rancher (Born & Raised); Navy Combat Medic (Enlisted at 17, Honorably discharged at 20 due to serious shrapnel injury); Cedar Oak Dude Ranch Owner

Other Education: Bachelors in Architecture and Engineering. Taught sailing, hand to hand combat, and weaponry by father and Navy. Taught hunting and skinning by Qaletaqa.

Family:

-Paternal: Jonathon Grey, Retired Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander (Father, played by Mark Harmon; April 19, 1954)

-Maternal: Nova Atohi-Walker (Mother, played by Brenda Schad; November 17, 1960 - June 30, 2000 Cancer), Anna Atohi (Grandmother; December 20, 1941 - November 1, 2001), Kwatoko Walker (Grandfather; June 2,1939 - December 12, 1965 Vietnam), Qaletaqa Walker (Born 1961; Godfather/'Uncle'/Cousins through grandfathers being brothers)


	2. Memory Merge

**WARNING! Mentions of rape, suicide and implied murder.**

_A beautiful brown eyed brunette woman sings him a lullaby after tucking him in for the night. A tall blue-eyed man with a light speckling of gray mixing in with his dirty blonde hair occasionally watches from the doorway with a soft smile. His parents in this new life, Jonathon Grey and Nova Atohi-Walker._

_His father was in the Navy. He could remember him being away at sea those first few year but he was his hero. His father came home for good, having retired when he was 9. While he had been at sea Mom raised him while running the family farm and dude ranch. Just over 584 acres in northern Texas' Hutchinson County near the Canadian River. Mom would take him out into the woods nearby and they would sit near a section of White Deer Creek that ran through the lower half of the property. They would sit and sometimes just talk but mostly he would lay down with his head in her lap as she read whatever book she had brought with her to him._

* * *

_A tall man with long raven black hair teaching him how to whittle. His face was serious most of the time but every now and then his lips would twitch up into a barely there smile. A motel with a truck stop and market in the midst of desert and grassland with RV parking. He saw how some would narrow their eyes and frown or even just turn away from him and his parents when they came. His 'Uncle' and godfather Taqa and the reservation._

_"Uncle Taqa, can I ask you something?"_

_"You just did and I've told you it's taa'ha not uncle. You need to remember these things, Kele." He tells him eyes focused on the block of wood in his hands._

_"Taa'ha Taqa? Sounds like a weird taco." He mumbles and Taqa sighs._

_"This is the language of our ancestors, the people that we came from. To just let it die is 'what would be weird'. Kele, you need to remember our people are few, fewer remember the old ways, and even fewer bother to pass on the traditions of our people, your people." He tells him, face as stern as always but a look of disappointment in his eyes that has him duck his head._

_"Sorry Taa'ha." He looks down before Taqa sighs and puts the wood down._

_"What is your question?"_

_"The other kids like me, why?"_

_"Why do you say they don't like you?" His eyes glance to Taqa before looking back down._

_"They say things about me . . . and Mom."_

_"How so?" Taqa questions, his body having stiffened._

_"They say I'm a halfie, a mutt. The older ones said I don't belong here. They called Mom a paleface lover and said she was a traitor."_

_"That's why you hit Nayavu isn't it?" He nods in response. "Good."_

_"What?"_

_"Anyone who says anything like that about your mother deserves it. Just don't tell her I said that." Taqa ruffles his hair. "And don't do it often you'll get in trouble, again."_

_"I'll try." They share a smile for a moment before Taqa wraps an arm around him and pulls him closer._

_"Sometimes, I forget it is not just us that face such persecution but that we ourselves do the same as well." Taqa pauses. "The world is not fair or just despite how we try to make it so. I wish I could tell you that it was and that when you are older things will be better but I can't. But! To see a change we must be the change._ _" It was an hour or so later as Taqa was showing him how to whittle that Mom came to pick him up. "Remember what I said Little Sparrow_ _."_

_"I won't." He said grabbing the backpack he'd brought to visit for the weekend. "Taa'ha?"_

_"Yes?"_

_"Just you wait I'm gonna grow bigger and taller than you and then you won't call me little sparrow anymore!" Taqa laughs._

_"Even if you do grow and I end up an old and gray haired old man hunched over a cane I'll still call you little, Little Sparrow." He groaned._

_"Bye Taa'ha." He waved before running to his mom who placed a kiss at his temple. "Mom! I told you not in front of people!"_

_"Well, I thought you only meant at school." She told him smiling lips pressed tightly together as she tried to stop herself from laughing at him. "Thank you for taking him, Taqa."_

_"Anytime sister."_

* * *

**WARNING! Applies here.**

_An older woman with long thick dark brown almost black hair pulled back into a braid and brown eyes sits with him. She speaks about the importance of certain traditions while sitting in her rocking chair as she weaves a blanket. His So'oh (grandmother) Anna._

_They thought he was asleep when they started arguing. So'oh wanted Mom to leave his Dad but she refused. "Why can't you just accept him?"_

_"He doesn't deserve my acceptance."_

_"Why, mom?"_

_"He's barely around. Look around you, Nova. Look and see! You take care of the 'house' big enough to fit the tribe, the land, the little hotel and cabins for the rich men to see what it is to work for a weekend, the animals, and the employees you need to keep it all going. On top of it all, you raise Kele alone!"_

_"Yea, I do all of that." Mom says with a huffy laugh. "Jon is a good man, he serves his country because he genuinely believes it's the right thing to do cause believe me he's not doing it for the money. He doesn't lie, steal, drink, or cheat. He comes home to me, and only me."_

_"Don't you dare bring Honaw or his family into this. HE was a good man! He's the one you should have married."_

_"He beat me black and blue! He broke 4 ribs! Fractured my jaw! But HE was a good man? No. He just wasn't a white man."_

_"His family did right by us."_

_"He raped me! And then he let his friends do the same! If not for Jon, I would have taken my life. He found me in the dead of the night while I was laying down in the middle of the highway. I couldn't do it myself. I tried but I just couldn't so I just waited for a car to hit me. I was so tired of pretending everything was ok when it wasn't. I was always looking over my shoulder expecting them to come for me again. I couldn't remember at first but I could feel it. I remember rubbing my skin raw in the shower as I tried to clean away what they did to me. You want to know why I was kicked out of college? Because one of them was the Dean's son and another was the son of the Sheriff. Honaw let them do what they wanted after he was finished and they paid him for it."_

_"Why did you not come to me? Why did you not tell me?"_

_"How could I? You sung Honaw's praises."_

_"You're my daughter! I would have killed him for what he did to you."_

_"Then you would have been too late." Mom says before speaking too low for him to hear the rest of what she said, but he managed to catch bits and pieces. "dating--told--week later--all three found hanging--deployed--ruled suicide." It was quiet for a while._

_"Well, I suppose I could give Jonathon a chance. He would have been considered a good warrior and protector after all."_

_"Thank you, that's all I wanted."_

* * *

_A somewhat burly man with buzzcut brown hair and a thick beard smiling with his father while a blonde haired woman smiles as she watches him play with her children. A short long haired boy pretending he is a knight as a tiny girl, a toddler of 2 or 3 pretends to be the princess held hostage by him, who plays the dragon. His father's childhood friend Steven Clark and his wife Madison along with their two children Nick and Alicia._


	3. Growing Up

  
  
  
Time moved fast. Since waking to his new life he had pushed through everything he could. He wanted to know everything he could possibly think of needing. He was flying through school as quick as he could. His parents tried to convince him otherwise but he just didn't see the point he knew the material and in all honesty what was the point in making friends with snot nosed brats that could barely put a proper sentence together. He couldn't stand it, he wouldn't do it, and so he tested out. He tested well above what they had thought he would, passing elementary, middle school, and high school material easily. He may have been a wildlife photographer last time around but that didn't mean he wasn't brilliant in his own way. He'd always excelled with numbers. Calculus had been a breeze his last life and it was no different here, the same went for physics and mechanics which is why the moment he tested out of high school and started looking at colleges his parents decided to just go with the flow instead of possibly stunting his growth. Otherwise he would have just kept dozing off in his classes.

**Years: 1990-1995**

He chose to do a double major in architecture and electrical engineering with a focus on renewable energy. Of course his advisor had tried to talk him out of it but with a blank look on his face he just asked for the course material and class lists. He lied and told Mr. Rothstein he'd take his classes but stay undecided until he figured out which one he liked. He completed advanced placement courses and took at over a dozen exams testing out of classes for credit along with taking CLEPS. Needless to say by the time he met with his advisor again before classes started the man was speechless and simply went along with what he wanted.

Being in Texas and in tornado alley at that he was used to heading down into the underground cellar but her also knew that if things continued the way they had in his time they'd end up facing more than just tornadoes. He started making his designs for upgrades to the ranch the sooner they were done the better and it would be less expensive sooner than later.

Solar energy was somewhat limited to commercial uses and he knew it wouldn't really take off for another decade or so. Time he couldn't wait on. He'd messed with enough portable solar equipment last time around while limited to living out of safari tents to know how to makeshift a pretty decent high powered one with spare parts. Considering he had access to the good stuff, he planned on making use of it. By the age of 14 he had two degrees under his belt.

**Years: 1990-1999**

With the memories having merged with him and the realization that he needed to know more he had begged his parents to sign him up for other things. It didn't take long for him to realize his body wasn't just different in appearance. He remembered and picked up on things faster and more easily. That paired with his flawless coordination and adoptive muscle memory allowed him to perfectly mimic another person's movements after observing them and after a few times doing so himself he could perform them effortlessly. He found a surprise with his new body after realizing that he didn't really get tired often if at all. The more effort he put it and the longer he did so the more his stamina seemed to grow. Within a few years he could go days without sleeping before feeling the effects, making sleep more of something he did out of boredom than necessity most nights.

Another surprise ended up being his accelerated muscle development and growth. Thrice a week he would attend taekwondo classes where he would learn to use a bo staff while Dad taught him Muay Thai, focusing on increasing his speed and precision as he had been smaller than some of the other kids his age. Once he started to fill out and shoot up after those first couple years Dad had started teaching him Brazilian Jiu-jutsu.

* * *

It was strange having two parents who actually cared, parents who actually loved each other and him. Parents that smiled and laughed. Parents that had a family game night ever Saturday, that took him boating in the summer and kayaking every other weekend during the year, and taught him to sail. He spent a month every summer with Taa'ha Taqa. The time together was spent learning to hunt, skin, and cook our prey. Taa'ha even taught him to whittle.

He doubted Cordelia could remember just how bad their original 'father' had been. Even now he remembers the terror rushing through him as he had the blonde toddler hide in an old toy chest he kept his blankets in at the corner of the closet as their drunk of a father had stormed through the house after beating their mother. His mother with her blonde hair and pale grey eyes could barely stand to look at Cordy because she had his eyes, the eyes she saw narrowed at her as he beat her night after night.

She tried, she really did but it wasn't until Cordy was about 5 that she finally left him and got help. Only problem was she didn't do it until Cordelia was laid out on the tan rug bleeding from the top of her head after having it collide with the coffee table while the side of his own face had been slashed with a broken beer bottle. The doctors had said it was a miracle he hadn't lost his right eye but his vision was never the same after that night. He killed his 'father' that night, at the age of 12, when he dug his teeth into the side of the man's neck as hard as he could, just like he'd seen a wolf do on Animal Channel, after he thought Dean had finally given up and turned away from him to beat on Cordelia. The bastard had bled out after managing to rip him off, only realizing his mistake too late. The scars he had worn until his death had been a permanent reminder of the man.

* * *

At 17 he stood 6 feet tall at 172 pounds of lean muscle and still growing. It was barely a week after his 17th birthday when he handed his parents the forms for his enlistment already filled out and waiting for their signature. He'd been considering it the last three years and had made the decision. Convincing them wasn't easy but his first year wouldn't leave US soil until and if they waited it would just mean him signing up a year later then planned. They knew he wouldn't change his mind and so after a night of arguing and his mom crying away the night, they signed the forms.

It wasn't long before he was off to boot camp. While the drills and constant repetition were somewhat new to him other things were not. The time in boot camp and then training allowed him to work towards perfecting the things he hadn't yet. Combat training made him think of new ways of using his martial arts skills. The exercises were more difficult then what he'd done before and he was sure by the end he would leave a new man because despite the limited push it had on his stamina he could feel his muscles burning. His work-outs generally consisted of bear crawling 100 feet with 30 pound dumbbells in each hand, pull ups, and more. He just wished he hadn't made his Mom cry again after her seeing his shaved head.

**Year: 2000**

The cancer had spread to fast for the doctors to stop it. She had been diagnosed in early April, only to be gone June 30. His mother was dead at the age of 39. Dad had called him before he was to be sent to Panama City to begin the diving portion of his SARC training. She was buried in a plot set aside for both her and his dad. So'oh had provided the quilt she had woven to be used as Mom's burial shroud after her face was covered with a cotton mask and the clothing, water and piki was ready to be placed with her. The Clarks had even managed to stay for a week.

Little did he know that come November Stephan Clark would commit suicide leaving his wife alone to raise 16 year old Nick and 14 year old Alicia while trying to take his Dad with him.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: What do you guys think of the cover?**

* * *

**October 20, 2000**

**Clark House**

"I can't believe you're here man. This is so cool." Nick tells Dean.

"Yea, well it's just for the weekend. I have to be back at the base Monday bud, but you know you can call. So what's this about your mom finding you high?"

"It was just a little weed. I wanted to try it."

"Nick."

"Ok so maybe it wasn't just weed but it's not a big deal."

"Nick your mom found you on the front step in nothing but your briefs, high as a fucking kite. You're so called 'friends' didn't even bother to help you get dressed or ring the doorbell before throwing your clothes next to you and taking off."

"Come on Dean, I just needed to let off some steam. That's all."

"Look, I'm not trying to be your parent cause I'm not but anything could have happened to you. If you mixed the wrong shit you could have ended up in the hospital or an early grave and I'd be hunting the motherfuckers down. And I guarantee you, I would have found and gut them before anyone caught up to me. You're family, Nick."

"You never told me that."

"Yea, well don't get used to it." Dean says playfully shoving him over before laying down on the bed also, his long legs hanging over the edge with feet flat on the floor. "Why did you do it?"

"Just dad. You know the past few months it's just been like he's in his own world. He's always tired when he comes home from work, just skips dinner and goes right to his room. If I go in there to talk it's like he's listening and I can tell he hears me but he's not actually there. He used to be there but lately he isn't and I don't know why. Fathers are supposed to be there for their sons, I know they are cause yours is! But I guess the world is just too much for him and I don't know what to do and Alicia she just, she has all her stuff with her dance classes and I'm trying to keep her from noticing but it's too much."

"Nick, you could have talked to me. I know I haven't been around lately but you can always talk to me Nick, no matter what I'm here and you know Dad is there for you too. I'm pretty sure if either of you called he'd drop everything and come running just like he would for me. Dad's pretty alone with me gone, you know. He's probably thinking something I don't need him or something equally as stupid but you know I'm actually pretty worried the closer I get to finishing up my training. I'm 18, in the Marines, and if there's a war I'm being shipped out. That scares the shit out of me but I know I can talk to Dad about it if I need to. I don't know about Steven but you can count on my Dad and me. Like i said before we might not be blood but we're family. Dad thinks of you as another son and Nick you ARE my brother, my baby brother."

"You know if you marry Alicia we really actually be brothers."

"Alicia's 14 Nick."

"She'll grow up eventually." Dean laughs at Nick as he hears knocking on the bedroom door and Alicia opens it.

"What's up Lissy-girl?" Dean asks looking over at her with a small smile as Nick howls in laughter at the irony.

"Do you guys wanna play Monopoly in the living room with me and Mom while we wait for our dads? We got pizza. Plain, pepperoni, and meat lovers!" She says pushing a lock of hair behind her ear while looking down at the floor.

"You had me at pizza Lissy-girl, let's go! I'll play the dog. We should probably put the shoe and top hat to the side considering the way those two get." He tells her getting up before pulling up Nick who was lazing about.

"I guess I'll be the wheelbarrow." Nick sighs.

"I'll play thimble!" Alicia says looking up at him with a wide smile as they walk into the hall only for her eyes to go wide as Madison dances and sings off key up the hall. "Mom!"

"Madison, I thought we all agreed no listening to ABBA when we're in the house."

_And when you get the cha-ance._

_You are the Dancing Queen_

_Young and sweet, only 17_

_Dancing Queen_

"This has to be a nightmare." Nick buries his face in his face.

"I am so sorry for you guys." Deans says looking on in horror as Madison shimmies.

"Mom you're embarrassing us!" Alicia yells as her cheeks go red.

_You can dance, you can jive_

_Having the time of your li-iife_

_Oo-oh, see that girl, watch that scene_

_Diggin' the dancing queen_

* * *

**Elsewhere that Night**

"It's been a long time since we spent this much time together Stevie-boy." Jonathon tells his old friend as he slides into the passenger seat.

"I guess it has. How have you been holding up?"

"I-" He clears his throat at the thought of his wife. "It's hard, every morning I wake up and for just a second or two I think I'll find her there laying next to me but I don't and it tears me apart. Nova was the love of my life, the woman I thought I'd be growing old with. If anyone was supposed to go it was supposed to be me."

"Nova was an incredible woman."

"Yes, she was. You know after she passed Dean took me to this spot out on the ranch by the creek and we just sat and read Leaves of Grass. God, Nova used to love reading that." He says staring out the window. "Sometimes, I can't help wanting to join her wherever she is."

"I know what you mean."

"No, you have Madison and the kids. Dean, Dean doesn't need me anymore. I don't think he's needed me for a long time but I just keep holding on, pushing for time together even though I know he could be out there having fun with people his own age on his days off instead of driving for hours just to spend some time with his old man. Can't help wondering if I'm holding him back but he's just so much like his mother. So wild and free. You know he's more than either of us could have hoped for, we didn't even think having him was possible. Nova called him our miracle and she was right cause between both of us there was no way it should have been possible but it was."

"He should've been mine." Steven says in little more then a whisper but still heard.

"What?" Jonathon turned to look at his oldest friend to see his red-rimmed eyes focused on the stretch of highway in front of him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You were always gone. I was the one that there. Dean should've been mine but you, you ruined that."

"What the hell are you telling me?" Jonathon couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I thought she'd leave you but then Dean, Dean's eyes never changed to brown like hers or mine no they were blue."

"Madison-"

"Nova said it couldn't ever happen again and that I had to forget her. I loved her, I was so sure she would come back to me, that she just needed to realize it. Madison wasn't what I wanted, I thought for sure, I was so sure, Nova would stop me from marrying her but she had you and Dean." He scoffed. "Nick and Alicia should have been Nova's and Dean should have been mine."

"You son of a bitch, why? Why would you tell me this now? After everything? After Nova's gone?"

"Because I'm gonna see her again and you're coming with me." He tells Jon, pressing down on the gas.

"What?" Jonathon had no idea what he was saying his mind still processing what he'd been told.

"Nova's gone and like you said Dean doesn't need you." He gripped the wheel tightly before swerving. The car manages to flip over the divider, skidding, and in a second that feels like eternity as Jonathon hangs from the seat he can see the incoming car's bright headlights coming closer as the sound of horns and squealing tires fill his ears. The sound of metal crushing against metal and a flash of pain is all he knows before the world goes dark.


	5. Amy Pt. 1

**December 2000 - July 2001**

He was half way through his SARC training. Dean just had to get through the next 221 days in Fort Bragg, NC and he would be finished. He'd been there almost a month already and some of the girls had nicknamed him 'Big Bear' since he was apparently as large and startling to see come out of nowhere as one but according to them a complete softie on the inside like a teddy bear. He still had no idea where the hell they got that idea from but at least it wasn't anywhere near as embarrassing as it could have been. He was just glad he wasn't the one being called Mickey Mouse like William Moss. He should have known better then to bring in a picture where he was wearing those damn Disney ears even if it was of a picture of him and his family. The poor guy couldn't go anywhere without someone asking him how Minnie and Mickey Jr. were doing.

He'd made a few friends and more then a few enemies when some of the others realized he wouldn't stand by and watch them crack jokes or pressure the girls that had joined up. He always told Cordelia and Violet that they could do anything a man could when they were growing up and new life in the past or not that belief hadn't changed. He refused to let the assholes mess with the girls on base just to make themselves feel better and it had been enough to find one face he actually somewhat recognized, Petty Officer 2nd Class Rosita Espinosa. She was an expert mechanic putting damn near every guy to shame including him when it came to the trucks. It was probably for that reason and the memory of his sister going on about how much she idolized her that he'd sought her out.

It wasn't long before they became friends at least after she realized he wasn't hitting on her. She was beautiful he could admit it and he did but in all honesty every time they finished talking he felt like he should introduce her to Taqa. Rosita had a thing for older men that radiated confidence, stability, and maturity. That was most likely due to the fact that her own father had never seemed to grow up what with him 'always chasing anything in a skirt' resulting in the birth of her half brother who until the birth of his own son at the age of 15 and having the mother leave the newborn with him had followed his example. Francisco was 18 now and Roman 3. At 26, she was their main source of income since their father had drunk himself to death a couple years ago. For some reason he really wanted her to meet Taqa. Maybe that was what drove him to tell her about the family business and offer her a job if she ever wanted out.

* * *

Francisco somehow managed to talk him into taking Rosita out for her birthday. He had managed to get a dozen or so of their friends together for an afternoon of rock-climbing and pizza. Cisco having mentioned how she used to go as often as she could before she took in him and Roman. He hadn't seen a problem with it considering he was making plenty of money from royalties on the solar panel and charger designs he'd patented and sold. Renovations were already being made to the ranch that his Dad was overseeing to make it entirely green and therefore apocalypse ready, including the installation of a couple tornado shelters equipped with their own private greenhouses large enough to hold two dozen people. He wished there had been some way he could have stayed with his Dad and help him through the rest of his physical therapy but he couldn't. 

* * *

**Rosita's Birthday Get Together, February**

"I can't believe you actually did this. I mean seriously what the hell?" Rosita said with a playful shove that didn't move him at all as she looked up at him. "Ugh, what the hell did your parents feed you, Big Bear."

"Food." Dean says seriously.

"You're such as asshole. You know that"

"I pride myself on it."

"Go get us more beer, you ass."

"Of course, your majesty, whatever you say." He says rolling his eyes.

"Ooh, more Pepsi too!/Fries./Nachos man!" The others joined in.

"If you're not the birthday girl you can get your own shit." He said walking away.

"BOOO!!!" the girls sounded as Rosita laughed.

**~~*~**

* * *

He was walking a few of the climbing walls to put in a few orders for the table when it caught his eye. The girl was holding the rope loosely while her phone was in her hand and the blonde connected to it was nearly 20 feet up. He could hear it when the phone rang in the girl's hand despite the fact he shouldn't be able to. He could see how her eyes lit up as she looked at the screen before she let go completely and turned before walking a few steps away to answer without a single warning to the blonde. Looking up again he saw it coming before it even happened, she lost her grip. He wasn't sure how he got under her as quickly as he did but he had and he bent with her as she landed in his arms, trying to soften the blow. "Are you alright?" He asked as he knelt down to place her down gently as help came. Baby blue eyes opened to meet cobalt.

"I think so." She said lightly.

"Talking about falling for Big Bear." Rosita's voice said from behind him and he turned to face her. A brow raised as she smirked as she stood there with crossed arms as William 'Mickey Mouse' Moss and Ashley "Firefly" Collins stood behind her with their own raised brows though Moss had more of a 'good job' look to his eyes.

"Uh, thanks. I-I'm Amy." The little blonde says when she finds them after being cleared and having a little 'talk' with her friend.

"Nice to meet you Amy, I'm Rosita and the big lug that caught you is Dean Grey-Atohi. His mom was a hyphenator. But he also responds to Big Bear. That's William Moss and Ashley Collins or Mickey Mouse and Firefly."

"Big Bear?"

"As big as one but soft as a teddy."

"I'm not soft." Dean says irritated.

"Oh please you planned this whole thing for Blackjack here."

"Blackjack?" Amy asked.

"Sorry. Will here is called Mickey Mouse because of a picture that got around of him at Disney World with his family, Rosita is Blackjack because she usually cleans us all out on poker nights, and I'm Firefly cause uh. . . why am I Firefly?"

"You light up the room." Moss tells her.

"Aww, well thanks."

"So why did the nicknames start?"

"Marines."

"All of you?" Amy asked with baby blues on full display.

"There something wrong with that?" Rosita asks her with narrowed eyes.

"No! No, I was just surprised that's all." Amy panics and Dean sighs.

"She's just messing with you."

"Wh- really?" Amy cranes her neck to look up at him before looking back at Rosita.

"Always ruining my fun. So ready to get back up there?"

"Oh, I don't know about that." Amy looks toward the climbing wall with a bit of fear.

"If you don't try it again now you might never do it again. I'll even spot you." Dean offers.

"What if I fall again?"

"I'll catch you."

"Ok." She says with a nod before biting her bottom lip and his eyes glance to them momentarily before turning away.

* * *

Time seemed to move a hell of a lot faster since meeting Amy. She was quickly becoming someone he couldn't help wanting to see. Free-time was usually spent talking with her on the phone until lights out or seeing her off base. By April they were officially dating and his Dad was ecstatic to hear that someone had caught his eye. They made plans for regular date nights to the movies, dinner, coffee at Starbucks, anything they could think of. It was strange for him. It was the first time he actually put as much effort as he was in a relationship. It was clear that this was more and as he started to feel more for her he couldn't stop remembering her death when this world had been just a tv show. Her bloodied neck torn open and glazed eyes opening instead of baby blue haunted his dreams.

There was something about her. Her smile lit up the room and when she laughed he couldn't help laughing with her. When she cried, he moved to comfort her as if it was instinct when he was horrible at it with anyone else.

Amy told him about her family. Her parents were older, well into their mid 60's and she had been a surprise to them and her older sister who was 12 years older then her and now worked as a Civil Rights lawyer. She told her how she resented Andrea for leaving and not coming back even for her birthdays. She told him how she wasn't sure how much more she could stand before she said enough was enough when it came to Andrea's broken promises. She told him about fishing trips with her dad and how he would let her throw the fish back after she'd caught one. She told him about how her mom had worked at her elementary school and how she couldn't get away with anything because she would always find out. She told him about how she had given herself a haircut one year and one of the teachers had mentioned it to her and how embarrassed she was when her mom's voice came over the loud speaker.

She told him about her horrible first kiss her freshman year with Sebastian Knolls and how at the time she wasn't sure if that was what kissing was actually supposed to be like or if he was just trying to eat her face which left them both laughing. Amy told him everything she could think of not even caring about things others might find embarrassing. She even mentioned her plans to study nursing in Atlanta come September. The more he got to know her the more he thought about her. Amy Harrison was a force all on her own. She was optimistic, stubborn, a little impulsive, and as sweet as sugar until you pissed her off which took a hell of a lot. He couldn't help his growing feelings for her.

Dean told her about his in return. He told her about his mom and how she died of cancer. He told her about his dad and she held him when he got the news that despite the latest surgery there was nothing more that could be done and his father would be bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He told her how after the crash his father couldn't look at him until he had finally confronted him and found out his mom had cheated with the man that left him a paraplegic and the reason he had done it. How he personally requested the hospital do a paternity test to put both their minds to rest and how they decided to ignore the words of the man who had tried to destroy what remained of their family. He even told her about the reservation and how his mother was looked down on for marrying a white man and how they would speak about him when they thought he couldn't hear them and how it was little better with his dad since they didn't share that many noticeable features aside from their eyes.

* * *

It was a couple weeks into August when Amy asked him to meet her family. Andrea was coming back for an entire weekend to celebrate their parent's wedding anniversary and she wanted him to join them for dinner the night before then. She even promised not to cook herself which had him chuckling as last time she had cooked she'd managed to give them both food poisoning and so he agreed to be there in August.

* * *

**A/N: So, I've kept the age difference between the two sisters the same. This will leave Andrea a little younger than canon as right now Dean and Amy are both 20, making Andrea 32.**


End file.
